


Two Truths and a Lie

by LizAnn_5869



Series: Summer Love [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Early Days in Pete’s World, F/M, Love, Romance, Rose gets a surprise, summer fic bingo, summertime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-24 05:42:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20353318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizAnn_5869/pseuds/LizAnn_5869
Summary: While playing a game with the Doctor, Rose learns a surprising fact about an old friend.





	Two Truths and a Lie

**Author's Note:**

> For Doctorroseprompts Summer Fic Bingo prompts: pool, swim, game, lights, and wave. BINGO!

After Jackie caught them snogging under a pool float fort and sprayed them both with a super soaker, the Doctor and Rose decided that they’d try to behave as best they could. (At least until Jackie took Tony upstairs.) After warning them that she’d better never “catch them s-h-a-g-g-i-n-g in front of the c-h-i-l-d” she now seemed to be satisfied with their behavior, yet still annoyed by their very existence. She kept an eye on them from the patio. 

So the Doctor reclined on one pool float, and Rose rested on the other. They held hands, keeping their inflatables together. (They hadn’t been together in Pete’s World long, so neither one really relished the idea of floating away from the other.) 

“Never really appreciated how nice Mum has made this patio,” Rose commented. “I was always too busy before. But she’s outdone herself with the flowers and the fairy lights around the pool. S’ gorgeous.”

He squeezed her hand and she turned her head to see him grinning. “What?” she asked. 

“Just you, Rose Tyler. That’s all. Thinkin’ about you.” His voice was a low bedroom rumble that warmed her from head to toe.

“Don’t get too frisky. We have eyes on us.” Rose warned. “Wanna play a game?”

“I’d love to play games,” he said with a wicked chuckle and an eyebrow wiggle. Rose let go of his hand long enough to splash him a bit. “Oi, there!” He reclaimed her hand immediately.

“Just tryin’ to cool you off. Let’s play a game until

Mum goes in, anyway.”

“Don’t you mean M-U-M, to go with the theme of spelling out our sentences in front of your impressionable brother?” 

Rose laughed, “Shut up!” Once they’d gotten their laughter under control, she asked, “Ever play Two Truths and a Lie? You tell me three facts, but one of them has to be a lie. I get to guess which one.”

“If one’s a lie, then it’s not a fact, Rose,” he said solemnly, pausing a whole three seconds before he was overcome with giggles again. 

“Just humor me!”

“Okay, okay, sounds fun. You go first.” He gave her an exaggerated wide-eyed stare, nodding for her to go on.

Rose rolled her eyes. “Well, you’re gonna have to let me think. Okay… I got sent home from our class trip to Paris because I wandered off with some friends. I convinced the school choir to go on strike. Annnd...before I worked at Henrik’s I was a waitress in a chip shop.”

“Weeeellll… you’ve never been able to follow Rule Number One, so the first one is clearly the truth.”

“Oi! Don’t be a knob… and, well, you’re right.”

“Let’s see… choir work stoppage or waitress? What’s the lie here?” The Doctor touched his tongue to the roof of his mouth, in deep concentration. She’d seen this expression many times on the TARDIS as he mulled over a particularly vexing situation.

“Don’t think too hard, Doctor,” Rose quipped. 

“I could definitely see you rallying a group to strike. Why the choir, though?”

Rose shrugged. “They were oppressed.”

“Ah. So it’s clearly the waitress one. Because I watched you drop dishes and spill coffee multiple times in the TARDIS galley, so clearly that is not in your skill set.”

“S’your fault for wakin’ me up too early. And that was the lie. I did apply for a waitressin’ job but the manager was a little too interested in my boobs so I left.” The Doctor arched an eyebrow at this revelation. Before he could comment on it, she cut in, “So what’s your two facts and a lie?”

He sighed. “903 years is a lot of facts. And lies. It gets hard to distinguish between the two at times. Hmmm…Welllll…I did not pass the operator’s test for flying the TARDIS. Also, I was there with the Beatles when they met Ravi Shankar. Helluva week, that was. Very groovy. Annnnd…”. He paused for effect. Then smirking, he concluded, “Captain Jack Harkness became the Face of Boe.”

Rose burst into raucous laughter, nearly falling off her float. She caught a glimpse of her mother glaring at them from a chaise lounge. Jackie was cradling Tony, and covering his ears from Rose’s outburst. Rose rolled her eyes and looked back the Doctor. “Okay. So, the first one is clearly the truth.” 

The Doctor scowled, but only for a second. “Yep,” he popped the p. “Not only did I steal her, I wasn’t even licensed to fly her.” He shrugged. “You won’t be any more licensed than I am when you copilot ours.”

“Point taken. Lemme think… can completely see ya meditation’ and jammin’ with the Beatles and Ravi Shankar, so the lie has to be Jack. I mean, you didn’t even try, Doctor.” She smirked, her eyebrow raised. 

The Doctor gave her a calculating glance, Finally, he grinned slowly. “I was jammin’ with Elvis that weekend.”

“Wha-“ Rose began. Her mind whirled with implications of what he just admitted. _He was with Elvis instead of the Beatles so that means…no. _ She imagined Jack’s handsome face, his sparkling blue eyes, and try to reconcile that with the mental image of a huge head in what was basically a gigantic jar. She blinked slowly, finally finding the voice to squeak, “Shut. Up.” The Doctor nodded. “There is no bloody way.”

“There was a time when Jack... erm… encountered Martha and me. Martha had already met the Face of Boe by this time. Jack told us he was the Time Agent recruited from the Boeshane Peninsula. ‘Face of Boe, they called me.’ That’s what he told us, then walked away Martha and I were so gobsmacked, we didn’t speak properly for a good hour afterwards.”

Rose sat up on her float, having to quickly balance to remain upright. “That doesn’t mean he was that Face of Boe. There’s just no way. It’s a coincidence. Has to be.” She crossed her arms, stubbornly denying his statement.

“I don’t know. It could be, but…” The Doctor shook his head. “It didn’t feel wrong when Jack told us.”

“I… wow. Just wow.” Her heart jolted in shock as she thought, it was me. _Somehow what I did to him changes him in the future… and it’s my fault._

“Rose,” The Doctor murmured, scooting off his float with a splash. He stood in front of her, but she couldn’t look him in the eye. She felt him gently cup her cheek. “I can see the guilt on your face, Rose Tyler. Whatever made him Boe, he had to have done to himself, long after we left him.” He took her hand and prompted her get off her float. He pulled her into an embrace. 

“Y’think?” 

“I know. Doesn’t that sounds like trouble he’d get into all on his own?” 

Rose nodded against his chest. “S’pose so.”

“Now I wish I hadn’t used that one. I certainly never meant to upset you. Can I have a do-over?”

Rose chuckled, “Do your worst.”

“Erm… In my fifth incarnation, I pinned celery to the lapel of my coat. I can play the recorder, the spoons, and the organ. I’ve never met Shakespeare.”

Rose grinned up at him. “The celery, because who would do that?” 

He raised his hand, amusement sparkling in his eyes. “In theory, it’s an excellent poison detector. In practice, not so much.”

Rose shook her head. “Of course you did. Why would I ever choose that as the lie.”

“Your brother has introduced me to the wonder of peanut butter and celery, so I’ll probably just stick to snacking on it.”

“Then is your musical talent the lie?”

“Nope. I can probably play other things, too, just haven’t figured out what they are yet. I bet I’d be brilliant at the electric guitar.”

After a loud cleaning of her throat, Jackie announced in an exaggerated stage whisper, “Good night, you two. I’m takin’ this one to bed. And in case you get frisky, take it back to your own bed. I can see the swimmin’ pool from Tony’s bedroom window!” Rose and the Doctor waved goodnight as she turned on her heel and took Tony inside. 

“So you have met Shakespeare? Of course you have. Don’t know why I asked.”

“Yup. It was brilliant. We saved the world with a Harry Potter quote.”

Rose’s eyes narrowed as she thought about what he’d revealed. “Yeah, that’s definitely the truth. It’s too _you_ not to be.”

A slow smile spread across the Doctor's face. “You know what will always be the truth, no matter what?”

She matched his expression with her own, as she felt a little swoop of happiness in her stomach. “What?”

“Truth is, I love you, Rose Tyler, and I always will.” He leaned down and captured her lips in a searing kiss. And this time, they threw caution to the wind and didn’t build a pool float fort to hide it.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> The bit about the pool float fort is inspired by something I witnessed at a Fourth of July pool party. 😂


End file.
